One year after releasing his eleventh album, Flying Wig, Devendra Banhart shares the new single, “The Rose,” which is out today through Mexican Summer. Recorded in the same sessions as Flying Wig, Banhart felt that “The Rose” had too many words for an album that was meant to evoke a desolate landscape.

But with the one year anniversary of the album, it felt like a perfect moment for Banhart to celebrate and release the track that is co-written and produced by Cate Le Bon. As a whole, “The Rose” is a wonderful ditty by how the instrumentation consists of a lovely jazz vibe, while the artist uses melodic voice to sing out the relatable lyrics.

While talking about “The Rose,” Banhart says: “The title comes from Jay DeFeo’s monumental painting ‘The Rose.’ I’ve seen it and it radiates a light borne from a lifetime of devoted labor. It’s exquisite. The words are quite auto biographical and personal, this song feels like a self portrait.”

The artist adds: “The music was inspired by (though sounds absolutely nothing like) The Commodores’ ‘Night Shift’. I’ve always been quite moved by how that song feels like a Hollywood montage, someone listening to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson on the radio while they’re working the dreaded nightshift, something about the sweetly sad propulsive groove always gets me and inspired the feeling of this song.”

Photo Credit: Stephen Hoffmeister